Abstract
This paper explores how Nigerian Pentecostal deliverance reworks indigenous cosmologies of witchcraft and spirit attack in a global, digital world. Focusing on Yoruba contexts, it examines how ideas of witches, ancestral powers and malevolent spiritual forces are translated into Christian demonologies and mobilised in accusations against children and other “vulnerable” kin. Drawing on ongoing qualitative research – including sermons, prayer manuals, social-media videos, NGO and legal reports, and interviews with pastors and caregivers – the paper traces how older indigenous concepts of àjẹ́ (witchcraft), spirit possession and ritual pollution are reframed through Pentecostal preaching on generational curses, spiritual warfare and prosperity. These hybrid spiritualities are performed in deliverance services, prayer houses and viral videos that circulate far beyond local communities. The analysis asks how these reworked cosmologies shape everyday decisions about care, discipline and exclusion, particularly when children are labelled as spiritually dangerous. It also considers how activists, NGOs, and some church leaders draw on both indigenous idioms of protection and global human rights language to resist violent practices. By situating Nigerian Pentecostalism as a dynamic site where indigenous spiritualities are contested, commodified and globalised, the paper reflects on the ambivalent role of Christianity in sustaining and transforming indigenous worlds in contemporary Africa.
Presenters
Claire P. AyelotanResident Scholar, Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC), Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—Indigenous Spiritualities in Global Perspective
KEYWORDS
Pentecostalism, Indigenous Spiritualities, Witchcraft, Child Protection, Nigeria, Africa
